Tanzania
Beekeeping Act
Chapter 224
- Published in Tanzania Government Gazette
- Commenced
- [This is the version of this document at 31 July 2002.]
- [Note: This legislation has been thoroughly revised and consolidated under the supervision of the Attorney General's Office, in compliance with the Laws Revision Act No. 7 of 1994, the Revised Laws and Annual Revision Act (Chapter 356 (R.L.)), and the Interpretation of Laws and General Clauses Act No. 30 of 1972. This version is up-to-date as at 31st July 2002.]
Part I – Preliminary provisions (ss. 1-2)
1. Short title and commencement
This Act may be cited as the Beekeeping Act and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notice published in the Gazette, appoint, and the Minister may appoint different dates for different parts of the Act to come into operation.2. Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context requires otherwise—"apiary" means a beehive or a collection of beehives, whether stocked or unstocked;"apiary product" includes live bees, brood, beeswax, honey, cut comb honey, comb sections, bee combs, honey dew, bee collected pollen, bee venom, propolis or royal jelly or any substance declared by regulations to be an apiary product for purposes of this Act;"appliance" means any fitting, utensil, apparatus or implement that is used or has been used for the purposes of, or in connection with, beekeeping, or in the processing, handling or storing of apiary products;"authorised officer" means a beekeeping officer or any other officer appointed as such in writing by the Minister or Director to exercise any power or discharge any duty under this Act or any subsidiary legislation made under this Act;"bee" means an insect of the genus Apis or Meliponula or Trigona or any other genus of bee prescribed in regulations for the purposes of this Act;"beehive" means a receptacle used for housing living bees and includes a hive;"beekeeper" means a person who owns or has under his control or possession bees in his apiary or a person on whose behalf bees or an apiary are kept;"beekeepers registration system" means the system which may be established in accordance with the provisions of section 27 of this Act;"Beekeeping Development Fund" means the fund established by section 40 of this Act;"beekeeping equipment" includes hives, supers, hive covers, hive floors, hive tools, queen excluders, bee protectives, beesmoker, gears used in luring, handling and manipulating bees, honey and beeswax strainers, honey extractors, honey and beeswax storage facilities, frames, combs and any equipment used for processing and marketing of bee products and includes the honey, brood and pollen in the combs;"beekeeping zone" means an area of land within a national or local authority forest reserve in which the keeping of bees and management of apiaries in accordance with an approved management scheme is permitted;"bee reserve" means an area of land declared to be as such by an Order made under section 11(1);"beeswax" means the wax secreted by bees as bee comb material and includes raw beeswax and refined beeswax;"brand" means a permanent impression of any letter, sign, number or character made upon any beekeeping equipment;"broodbox" means the bottom box of an active beehive and includes a beehive designated for rearing brood;"cappings" means the covering and adhering beeswax over comb cells, pollen or brood that is removed before the honey extracting process;"chief executive officer" means the chief officer of the administrative, professional and technical services of a local authority, by whatever name called;"colony" means a family of queen and brood bees of any size and includes a colony temporarily without a queen, brood drones or workers;"comb" means a structure of cells made of beeswax;"commercial beeswax" means worked beeswax produced for sale by a manufacturer of apiary products;"Committee" means the National Beekeeping Advisory Committee established under section 10 of this Act;"declared village bee reserve" means a bee reserve referred to in section 20 of this Act;"director" means the person for the time being responsible for Beekeeping;"disease" means any infectious disease to which bees are subject and includes any parasite of bees;"Division" means the Division responsible for beekeeping;"environmental impact assessment" has the meaning ascribed to it by section 26 of this Act;"Executive Agency" has the meaning ascribed to it by the Executive Agencies Act 1;"frame" means a frame in which bee combs are built;"Fund" means the Beekeeping Development Fund established under section 40 of this Act;"gazetted bee reserve" means a national or local authority bee reserve declared by the Minister to be a gazetted bee reserve;"general land" has the meaning ascribed to it by section 2 of the Land Act 2;"Group" means a community management group."hive produce" means honey, pollen, beeswax, propolis or royal jelly, bee venom and any other product of the beehive that may be prescribed;"honey" means saccharine secretions from the nectaries of flowers that are gathered, modified and stored in bee combs and are laevo-rotatory;"honey dew" means the saccharine exudations of living parts of plants and the sweet liquid excreted by hemipterous insects feeding on plants that are gathered, modified and stored in bee combs and are dextrorotatory;"import permit" means an import permit granted under section 36 of this Act;"infected" includes contaminated and also includes infested;"joint management agreement" is the plan referred to in section 18 of this Act;"local authority" means a district council or an urban authority;"local authority bee reserve" means a bee reserve wholly owned by the local authority;"local authority beekeeping zone" means an area of land established as a local authority beekeeping zone under section 25 of this Act;"local authority forest reserve" means a forest reserve declared as such under the Forests Act 3;"Minister" means the Minister for the time being responsible for beekeeping;"Ministry" means the Ministry for the time being responsible for beekeeping;"national bee reserve" means a bee reserve wholy owned by the Government;"national forest reserve" means a forest reserve declared as such under the Forests Act 4;"notice of intention" means the notice referred to in section 13;"notifiable disease" means a disease or pest notified by Order published in the Gazette as a notifiable disease for purposes of this Act;"pests" means the Greater Wax Moth, the honey badger and such other animal, bird or insect as may from time to time be declared by Order published in the Gazette to be a pest for purposes of this Act;"Policy" means the National Beekeeping Policy;"private bee reserve" means a bee reserve owned by individual, group of persons or a Group or community;"quarantine area" means an area declared by the Minister to be a quarantine area under section 37 of this Act;"raw beeswax" includes beeswax which is heated in order to remove the honey therefrom but from which extraneous matter has not been removed;"register" means the register of beekeepers which may be established under Part V of this Act;"Trustees" means the Trustees of the Beekeeping Development Fund appointed under section 40 of this Act;"village assembly" means the village assembly of any village;"village council" means, in relation to a village, the village council of that village.Part II – The objectives of this Act (s. 3)
3. Objectives of this Act
Part III – Administration (ss. 4-10)
4. Responsibilities of the Minister
The Minister shall be responsible for policy formulation and for ensuring the execution by officials in the Ministry such functions connected with the implementation of this Act.5. Director responsible for beekeeping
6. Licensing officers, enforcement officers and inspectors
7. Information to the public
The Director may, where it is practical to do so, provide information and guidance, by Order or notice to members of the public in connection with the implementation of this Act.8. Relationship between the Ministry and other authorities
9. Conflict of interest
10. Establishment of National Beekeeping Advisory Committee
Part IV – Bee reserves and zones (ss. 11-26)
11. Powers of the Minister to establish a bee reserve
12. Private bee reserves
13. Procedures for declaration of a gazetted bee reserve
14. Boundaries of a gazetted bee reserve
15. Power to alter and degazetted bee reserve
16. Management of a gazetted bee reserve
17. Prohibited activities within a gazetted bee reserve
18. Joint management agreement for gazetted bee reserve
19. Declared local authority bee reserve
20. Declared village bee reserve
21. Power of local authority to make by-laws
22. Supervision of village and community bee reserves by local authorities
23. Establishment of beekeeping zones
24. Beekeeping in beekeeping zones
25. Local authority beekeeping zones
26. Environmental impact assessment
Part V – Registration of beekeepers (s. 27)
27. Establishment of beekeepers registration system
Part VI – Regulation of beekeeping activities (ss. 28-37)
28. Powers of the Director to restrict beekeeping
29. Honey not to be exposed
30. Protection against wax moth and other pests
31. Reporting of notifiable disease
A beekeeper shall as soon as after first becoming aware of or first suspecting that any bees, beehives, apiary products, or appliances in the beekeepers' possession or under the beekeepers' control are infected with a notifiable disease, give notice of the existence or suspected existence of that disease to the Director or an inspector.32. Inspection for bees
An inspector who receives notice under section 31 or who otherwise becomes aware of the existence or suspected existence of a notifiable disease shall be under a duty to examine the bees, beehives, apiary products or appliances and the place where the disease exists or is suspected to exist.33. Duties of beekeepers in respect of diseases
A beekeeper shall—34. Powers of inspectors in relation to disease
35. Declaration of infected area
36. Control on importation of bees
37. Quarantine area
Part VII – Financial provisions (ss. 38-42)
38. Power to charge fees
The Minister may prescribe the fees which shall be charged for various services rendered.39. Power to set and collect fees
40. Establishment of Beekeeping Development Fund
41. Purposes of the Fund
The objectives and purposes of the Fund are—42. Administration of the Fund
Part VIII – Offences and penalties (ss. 43-51)
43. Offences against this Act
Any person who fail to comply with any provisions of this Act or with any order or directive given under the provisions of this Act is guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one million shillings or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and imprisonment.44. Interference with or obstruction of officers
45. Powers of officers
46. Custody of seized bees and appliances
47. Compounding of offences
48. Power to prosecute
The Director and any beekeeping officer above the rank of Inspector shall have power to conduct prosecution for an offence under this Act or any subsidiary legislation made hereunder shall for that purpose have all the powers of public prosecutor under the Criminal Procedure Act 11.49. Additional orders on conviction
50. Reward to informer
The Director may award any amount not exceeding one half of any fine imposed for an offence against this Act to any person who may have supplied such information as may have led to the conviction of an offender.51. Protection of officers
No act or thing done by any officer shall, if the act or thing was done in good faith in the exercise or purported exercise of any power conferred by this Act for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act, subject such officer to any action, liability, claim or demand whatsoever.Part IX – Miscellaneous provisions (ss. 52-59)
52. Arrangement for research
53. Arrangement for training
There shall continue to be an Institute responsible for beekeeping training, which shall—54. Following swarms of bees
55. Appeals
Where a person is aggrieved—56. Rights of entry
57. Call for information
58. Power to make regulations
59. Power to grant exemptions
The Minister may, if he is satisfied that it is in the interests of the better management or sustainable utilisation of the beekeeping resources, by notice in the Gazette exempt any person or class of persons or any land or class of lands from all or any of the provisions of this Act, other than any of the provisions of Parts VIII or IX or any rules, orders or notices made under this Act, subject to such conditions and limitations as may be specified in such notice and any such notice shall be accompanied by a written statement of the reasons for the exemption which shall be made available to the public.History of this document
31 July 2002 this version
Consolidation
Cited documents 8
Legislation 8
1. | Land Act | 1268 citations |
2. | Village Land Act | 370 citations |
3. | Criminal Procedure Act | 50 citations |
4. | Executive Agencies Act | 42 citations |
5. | Local Government (Urban Authorities) Act, 1982 | 30 citations |
6. | Local Government (District Authorities) Act, 1982 | 28 citations |
7. | Forest Act, 2002 | 23 citations |
8. | Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute Act | 1 citation |